LETTER: Health Care for All, Richard Warren, The Chief-Leader

Posted by Sarah Outterson-Murphy214.20sc on August 06, 2018

Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed codifying Obamacare into New York State law. This is to stop health premiums from rising 24 percent as a result of President Donald Trump’s tax bill eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Cuomo’s proposal is benevolent. But enacting the New York Health Act would be better. It has passed the Assembly four years in a row.

It has 31 sponsors in the Senate, including Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Jeff Klein.

This bill would bring what has been stalled nationwide, the type of complete health coverage for all that every advanced nation but us has, to New York State.

Candidate Trump claimed he would replace Obamacare with something much better. So far he has proposed nothing. His sympathy lies with only profit-minded business people. It is unlikely Trump is going to cut insurance companies out of the medical field and replace Obamacare with a government-funded or expanded (Medicare-for-all) program that covers everybody. For the time being, the New York Health Act is our best hope.

On the state level, we’ve been unsuccessful in getting the Assembly to approve expanding 9/11-related health coverage to include civilian employees. On the Federal level, it was like pulling teeth to get the odious Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to bring extension of the Zadroga Act to a vote and approval.

But this would not even be an issue in Europe, Canada and the much-maligned-by-our-government Cuba. Because in those countries, if you have a life-threatening illness, it gets treated. You don’t have to worry about cost or prove you were the victim of a terrorist attack.